The collection contains art historian,
curator and gallery director Sandra Leonard Starr's papers related to her 1988 exhibition
and catalog titled, Lost and Found in California: Four Decades of
Assemblage Art. Included are her research files on artists, production material
for the exhibition and publication, and audio recordings and transcripts of Starr's
interviews with 12 significant figures in the California art scene from 1940 to 1987,
including artists Robert Alexander, Cameron, Richard Diebenkorn, George Herms, and Edward
Kienholz.

Background

Art historian and curator Sandra Leonard Starr was the longtime director of the James
Corcoran Gallery in Santa Monica, California. She has written extensively on Joseph Cornell,
among other topics, and in 1988 she mounted a three-part exhibition on California assemblage
art titled, Lost and Found in California: Four Decades of Assemblage
Art. The exhibition featured assemblage works by artists active in California from
1940 to 1987, and was held concurrently in three Santa Monica venues from July 16 to
December 7, 1988. The exhibition was presented chronologically, beginning with "The First
Generation, 1940-1962" at the Corcoran Gallery. The later years were divided into "The
Second Generation: The Narrative, 1957-1987" at Shoshana Wayne Gallery, and "The Second
Generation: Form and Idea, 1960-1987" at Pence Gallery. The exhibition catalog, considered a
significant contribution to scholarship on the history of California art, and assemblage art
in particular, was edited by Starr and includes two essays by her: "Assemblage Art: A Pocket
History" and "Assemblage Art in California: A Collective Memoir 1940-1969."

Extent

4.2 Linear Feet
(8 boxes)

Restrictions

Contact Library Reproductions and Permissions.

Availability

Open for use by qualified researchers with the exception of audio cassettes, which are
unavailable until reformatted.